According to statements made at the hearing, Mercado distributed multiple pounds of methamphetamine out of his Nampa residence between June 2015 and September 2016. Mercado also admitted to trafficking firearms. Mercado was convicted of delivery of a controlled substance in 1997 and 2005.

Sentencing is set for May 25, 2017, before Senior U.S. District Edward J. Lodge. Mercado faces a sentence of not less than 20 years imprisonment and not more than life, a $20,000,000 fine and a term of supervised release of at least ten years and up to life. As part of his plea, Mercado also agreed to forfeit $100,000 in cash proceeds.

This case is the result of a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Boise Police Department and the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), includes the cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; and U.S. Marshals Service. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.